Toshiba has announced its US businesses are cooperating with authorities over alleged accounting irregularities and is to cut a further 3,000 jobs.

Toshiba boss quits over £780m accounting scandal

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The company has been shaken by a profit-padding scandal in which senior management for years systematically pushed subordinates to cover up weak financial figures.

Toshiba, a pillar of Japan’s industrial establishment, is expecting a huge loss of about 710bn yen (US$6.4bn or £4.4bn) for the year to March, with declining global demand exacerbating financial woes.

The group said in a statement: “Several of our US subsidiaries have been requested to provide information by the US Department of Justice and [the] Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC], and they are cooperating with the request.” It referred to what it called an “accounting problem”, although it refrained from naming any companies.

The statement came after Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that the US justice department and the SEC were investigating if any fraud occurred over a loss booked by Toshiba’s US-based nuclear business division, Westinghouse.

The loss could be up to 200bn yen, the Asahi Shimbun daily newspaper reported.

Toshiba shares fell nearly 8% in Tokyo on Thursday following the reports, but rebounded on Friday, closing up 4.2% – the second biggest riser on the Nikkei, the Japanese stock market.

Toshiba said at a press conference held after the market closed on Friday that it would slash a further 3,000 jobs, taking total job losses to 14,000.

The company said it expected to return to the black in the year starting in April, when it is forecasting an operating profit of 120bn yen.

Toshiba also said it it was conducting a stress test on its Westinghouse division to assess whether it needs a writedown. It added that goodwill at Westinghouse was estimated to fall to 351.3bn yen by the end of March, from 385.2bn yen at the end of December.

Nuclear power has become less popular since Toshiba’s acquisition in 2006, especially following the Fukushima disaster which prompted many countries to freeze nuclear energy expansion.

In December, Japan’s Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission imposed a record 7.37bn yen fine on the company over the accounting scandal which has hammered its reputation.

In the wake of the scandal Toshiba – a vast conglomerate that makes everything from TVs, PCs and rice cookers to nuclear plants – has cut thousands of jobs and moved to sell some divisions to streamline the business.

Toshiba has just sold its medical equipment division to Canon for almost $6bn. It also announced a basic agreement to sell a majority interest in its home appliance business to China’s Midea.

• This article was amended on 22 March 2016 because an earlier version said that Toshiba had sold Canon. This has been corrected to say Toshiba has sold its medical equipment division to Canon.